An End to a Cold Winter
by Courtney JoAnne
Summary: When Belarus gets a call from Ivan, she is filled with hope that her dreams might be fulfilled. But with a warning from her dear brother's ex she finds herself broken and turns to an unexpected source for comfort. belaxcanada


**A/N: So this is an experiment with an idea that's been floating around in my head for a really long time. Tell me what you guys think! If you are interested, feed me reviews. And this one will be slow until I finish my other series so…  
Tell me what you think!  
Words: 1,109**

A platinum haired girl walked through the snow, a pale figure on the pure white surroundings. She was dainty looking, like a doll, but no smile graced those pale lips, just a stony blank look. If she would have just smiled, one would have thought her a snow angel as she was wearing a thick cream dress that fell down to her feet with a fluffy white shawl of sorts that hung over her arms and gathered with a long brooch at the front. She looked like she could have been born from the snow.

The only reason Belarus was dressed that nicely was because she had been called to her brother's house, and her boss gave her reason to believe that her dreams might come true. Her boss needn't had bid her to dress nicely though, Natalia would have done so herself. She knew that Ivan would not have invited her to his house without reason. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had been invited to her brother's house. She had always just come. So all the more reason.

Soon the petite girl found herself nearing her brother's estate. She could see the gate that fenced in the snowy fields around the manor house, and though she knew she still had a good half hours walk through the deep snow, she found she had renewed energy. Off in the near distance she could see her brother's home and she smiled faintly, knowing that the time for her dreams to come true was nearing.

But as she drew closer to the got she heard a strange noise. It was an odd choking noise, something she had heard before, but maybe with more fear in it. Thinking, she had to draw back to realize that what she heard was someone crying, no… sobbing somewhere nearby. Looking up, she stopped, studying the landscape for the thing making the strangled noise.

She stood there for a good ten minutes looking, and it hadn't taken long for the noise to subside either, so she was left without a sound to fallow. But then she noticed something; a shock of blonde against the snow, and then… something shiny. Glasses? Taking a step back, she found what had been crying, and she was not very pleased.

Sitting on a log that had fallen outside of her dear brother's gate was a man she had grown to detest. Blond hair, violet eyes, glasses, and that damned curl, it was Mathew Williams. Canada. Her brother's boyfriend.

"What…" she began sharply, trying very hard not to pull her knife out of the folds of the dress and to shred him right then and there "are you doing here." Now that she knew it was him she could care less that he had been crying. Had it been, say, a puppy she might have taken the time to help it somewhere out of another human being's watchful eye. But this man, as much as he looked like a sad, kicked puppy, she could let freeze and starve in the cold without guilt.

Mathew, who had been hoping that if he grew quiet she would have moved on, looked up a bit fearfully. He shuddered upon seeing her ice cold glare on him, but forced himself to take a deep breath and straighten.

"I… erm…just came from Ivan's house…" he looked down at his watch and furrowed his eyebrows " erm… two hours ago. And I… stopped here for a… rest I suppose." He looked up to see how his explanation of his presence faired, and grew a little more frightened at the death glare he received.

"Ah uh Ms. Belarus, don't worry I'll never be going back there!" he felt tears stinging his eyes, though he didn't know if it was from fear of her, or the memories of what had happened not so long ago coming back up.

Natalia might have hated that man, but she couldn't bring herself to harm him as she could sadly tell he wasn't lying. She might not have been a very kind or understanding girl, but she could tell as much when someone was lying. Now that she knew he was telling the truth though, it brought her to the next problem. Why was he not to go back?

Natalia knew as much to know that her brother was stupidly, almost obsessively devoted to the Canadian. A fact she had forced herself to forget in her joy of her brother calling for her. She had figured that she wouldn't care if he loved him, as long as he was hers. And though she was happy the Canadian wasn't planning on going back, she was worried about her brother's happiness, something she was sure he _should_ have with her, but she found was more glaringly present around him.

"Why?" the question was finally aired after the girl went over all her thoughts on the matter, but the question only left another long stretch of silence afterwards and it took another sharp glare to get the obviously depressed nation to answer.

"W-well…" if the man's voice had been quiet before, it was almost impossible to hear him now. She was lucky the air was silent because she was sure the slightest wind would whisk his words away. "Well Ivan…erm… broke up with me. He… told me I was useless… and told me to leave."

The first thing Natalia felt was perfect joy. That meant she had a chance, that maybe her brother had come to his senses and loved her. But then the cold reality hit her like always. The cold reality that would send her over the edge and want to attack anything in reach. No, he didn't love her. If he could turn away this man, then he surely held no love for her. But her hopeful side wouldn't give in to the logic, even when the other began to grow brave and give her more information that only fed her sense of doom.

"Ms. Belarus, I warn you when you go there…. Your brother is under his boss's orders to gain land… so be careful… he..." he wanted to continue but was stopped by the ice cold glare of the girl.

"Ivan loves me!" her voice was offended and dripping with poison, "Brother will marry me because he loves me!"

Mathew was scared. Well, he was scared until he heard the hurt in her voice, and then he could only respond kindly, like when one would pacify a child.

"Of course Ms. Belarus." He sighed, and hearing the sigh of sympathy in his tone she stalked off angrily.


End file.
